Emergency Powers Urged For Aquino

March 18, 1986|By United Press International.

MANILA — A Cabinet-level commission has agreed to recommend that the National Assembly grant President Corazon Aquino emergency powers for six months rather than declare a revolutionary government, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday.

The sweeping powers would include the authority to issue orders with the force of law to reorganize the government and carry out measures to ease the nation`s worst economic crisis since World War II.

Political Affairs Minister Antonio Cuenco said the study panel recommended that the Assembly convene May 12 to enact the extraordinary legislation.

Four of the five members of the panel rejected a proposal that Aquino be allowed to proclaim a revolutionary government as previously suggested, and decided instead on special emergency powers, Cuenco said.

The commission will sumbit its recommendations to the Cabinet on Wednesday, and the next steps would be Cabinet approval or a decision by Aquino, Cuenco said.

``The Cabinet may vote on it or it may leave the decision entirely to the president,`` the minister said.

Cuenco said the emergency powers would last at least six months or until the National Assembly could amend the existing 1973 constitution.

He said the amended constitution would be submitted to the nation`s voters for approval, and elections to municipal and provincial councils and possibly a new legislature would be held either in November or February.

Only Justice Minister Neptali Gonzales, chairman of the five-member ministerial study panel, favored revolutionary rule over emergency powers, deeming it essential to deal with the problems left from the 20-year regime of deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, Cuenco said.

Gonzales contended that Aquino, who took over on Feb. 25, could not be

``hamstrung by constitutional and legal niceties`` in bringing the Philippines back to true democracy, Cuenco said.

In another development, three police officers were arrested for killing the bodyguard of the wife of Philippine Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, who played a key role in deposing Marcos, police said Tuesday.

They said Corp. Carlos Santos, a Manila police officer who was Christina Enrile`s personal bodyguard for 10 years, was gunned down on Sunday in a central Manila street.

Santos was driving home when he stopped his car to talk to three police officers standing on a street corner. The three included an officer who had personal differences with him, police said. They said a fight broke out and Santos was shot several times.

There was no suggestion the incident was linked to Enrile`s position as defense minister or his role in deposing Marcos last month.